Recordings of background atmospheres and incidental noises from all over London. Many form part of a sound grid series recorded at evenly-spaced points across the city, each marking the centre of a square on the map below.
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Above: graphic based on a daytime satellite image courtesy of the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. Each red grid square is 2.5 miles or 4 kilometers across.
File name: Battersea Park
Grid square: Chelsea, Battersea, Clapham
Duration: 5:30
Recorded by: Sam Appleby
Recording date: Unknown
Time of day: Early morning
Location: By the lake in Battersea Park, south London.
Description: Loud airplane drone, birdsong and calls of waterfowl, splashes, a cyclist passes by, a faint siren in the distance.
Technical guff: Stereo.
Additional notes: Many thanks to Sam Appleby for sharing this recording via Soundcloud. Visit Sam Appleby's website to see examples of his landscape photography and audiovisual work.
File name: Clapham Junction walkway
Grid square: Chelsea, Battersea, Clapham
Duration: 3:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 15 May 2011
Time of day: 6pm
Location: Walking northwards along the covered inter-platform walkway at Clapham Junction station.
Description: Voices and footsteps, two men run past to catch a train, grinding sounds of train wheels, faint aeroplane drone, station announcements over speakers.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Nine Elms Sunday market
Grid square: Chelsea, Battersea, Clapham
Duration: 4:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 8 May 2011
Time of day: Noon
Location: Nine Elms Sunday market, Vauxhall.
Description: Busy market atmosphere with voices of market-goers and stallholders, loud recorded music, growing quieter in an indoor part of the market towards the end.
Technical guff: Headworn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: Car boot sale Battersea
Grid square: Chelsea, Battersea, Clapham
Duration: 1:40
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 25 April 2010
Time of day: 2.30pm
Location: Car boot sale off Battersea Bridge Road, south-west London.
Description: General hustle and bustle of the boot sale, humming from a snack bar's generator, voices of stallholders and customers.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x MM-HLSO/Sennheiser MKE-2 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
File name: TQ 2835 7688
Grid square: Chelsea, Battersea, Clapham
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 30 May 2009
Time of day: 5.00pm
Location: OS grid reference TQ 2835 7688. Prince of Wales Drive, near the junction with Macduff Road, overlooking Battersea Park.
Description: Vehicles pass along Prince of Wales Drive, a resident nearby slams shut the door to a block of mansion flats, the traffic dies down, allowing the voices of children and adults from the park to be heard, along with birdsong and the drone of a distant motorbike.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics. Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Sound map recordings fall into two kinds, shown by the filenames they're given.
A sound grid recording has a filename beginning with the letters 'TQ', followed by eight digits. These are the Ordnance Survey co-ordinates for where the recording ought to be made. Each is part of a regularly-spaced series of recordings covering London. More about them, including graphics showing the resulting city-wide patterns of sounds, can be found on this page.
Other recordings have more descriptive filenames and these are simply of curious or distinctive sounds heard in different places.